I see their faces at the windows. See, there are some with great bundles on their backs.'
'It is dried wood from the forest. They pile them against the walls and set them in a blaze. Who is this who tries to check them? By Saint Ives! it is the good priest who spake for them in the hall. He kneels, he prays, he implores! What! villains, would ye raise hands against those who have befriended you? Ah, the butcher has struck him! He is down! They stamp him under their feet! They tear off his gown and wave it in the air! See now, how the flames lick up the walls! Are there none left to rally round us? With a hundred men we might hold our own.'
'Oh, for my Company!' cried Sir Nigel. 'But where is Ford, Alleyne?'
'He is foully murdered, my fair lord.'
'The saints receive him! May he rest in peace! But here come some at last who may give us counsel, for amid these passages it is ill to stir without a guide.'
As he spoke, a French squire and the Bohemian knight came rushing down the steps, the latter bleeding from a slash across his forehead.
'All is lost!' he cried. 'The castle is taken and on fire, the Seneschal is slain and there is naught left for us.'
'On the contrary,' quoth Sir Nigel, 'there is much left to us, for there is a very honourable contention before us, and a fair lady for whom to give our lives. There are many ways in which a man might die, but none better than this.'
'You can tell us, Godfrey,' said Du Guesclin to the French squire: 'how came these men into the castle, and what succours can we count upon? By Saint Ives! if we come not quickly to some counsel we shall be burned like young rooks in a nest.'
The squire, a dark slender stripling, spoke firmly and quickly, as one who was trained to swift action. 'There is a passage under the earth into the castle,' said he, 'and through it some of the Jacks made their way, casting open the gates for the others. They have had help from within
